Tanks to EV for a Royal show

June 25th, 2009

With an extensive Electro-Voice PA to relay every sound effect and fascinating commentary, Her Majesty The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh enjoyed a thrilling live action experience amidst the finest and most historically significant collection of tanks in the world. The Queen was in Bovington, England to officially open the new wing of the Tank Museum, which recently completed a £16.5 million redevelopment project.

The redevelopment at the world’s largest educational tank museum encompassed the building of the Tank Arena, a new visitor attraction that features tank and armored vehicle displays, simulated combat and occasional performances by the Light Cavalry Band. An Electro-Voice sound system was installed in the arena and is capable of overcoming the noise of 40-ton tanks in simulated combat. The system greatly enhances the experience with sound effects and delivers a clear, intelligible commentary to spectators. Installers Complete Production Solutions (CPS) chose weatherproof Sx300 and ZX1 loudspeakers to deliver a realistic, almost interactive sound experience for the audience in the public viewing area.

Simon White, Installation Manager for CPS, has been involved with this project from the outset and selected EV speakers because “they consistently deliver accurate, reliable, and seamless coverage. We needed to install a system robust enough to handle outdoor conditions and still deliver quality sound throughout the indoor display areas, and because EV has such a versatile range, it was the obvious choice.“

The Tank Museum itself is of modern design, with a unique control tower that looms over the public gallery and tank demonstration arena. After laying more than three kilometers of cable, it took CPS six weeks to complete the installation of the 100V system. Loudspeakers have been positioned in 12 time-aligned zones and tied into the main system to facilitate public announcements. The system comprises 14 weatherproofed EV Sx300 P1X and eight ZX1 speakers, comfortably providing an SPL level set at 114 dB with an average level of 90 dB, giving the museum the ability to handle larger shows with pyrotechnics.

During mock tank battles, the system delivers a realistic ambient backdrop, using the sound effects of machine gun fire, explosions, and helicopters. All these are cued from an H/D playback unit in the control tower, where an operator creates a convincing battle environment by firing different effects in different zones. System control, EQ, and routing are handled by DSP, using presets for speech only, or combining effects and speech.

The project, which took 18 months to come to fruition, has been headed up by CPS Sales and Marketing Manager Richard Colegate. CPS has a long history with Electro-Voice and has provided many of their systems to theatres, schools, and clubs on a rental and installation basis.